All News articles – Page 1628
-
News
Relaxation leads to risk
Stricter controls on financial advisers and stricter controls on banks – all designed to protect the public. At the same time the government is ready to throw legal services open to the wider market. Could it be that it is missing something rather obvious – ...
-
News
Oarsome
This highly opinionated profession is well known for sticking its oar in, but Chris Partington, partner at Slater Heelis in Sale, seems to have taken this literally. Despite never having been in a canoe before this picture was taken, Partington is to complete the three-day, 120-mile ‘Cheshire Ring’ this week, ...
-
News
LSC announces contract start dates
The LSC has announced that all non-family legal aid contracts and family mediation contracts will start on 15 November 2010. It also announced that all current ‘family only’ and ‘family with housing’ contracts will be extended until 15 December 2010. The quashing order issued two weeks ago by the High ...
-
News
New sentencing guidelines proposed for assault
The Sentencing Council has proposed changes to the guidance given to judges on sentencing people for assault. In a consultation paper published today, it proposes that those convicted of assault should be sentenced based on the harm caused to the victim and their culpability, rather than ...
-
News
How fair is Britain?
Recent research claims that the ‘inherently masculine’ UK legal profession still has a long way to go before it achieves an acceptable level of diversity and equality.
-
News
How law firms can reduce the cost of property liabilities
Without question, the use of property by legal firms as both a financial and strategic tool has evolved very quickly in the past three years, aided by the recession. It has transformed from a traditional ‘place to do work’ to one with a myriad of agendas. ...
-
News
Information to unlock bank finance
If there was a core message for attendees at last week’s annual 360 Legal Conference to take away from the day, it was the urgency of addressing financial questions.
-
News
College of Law supports Browne’s plans on higher education
The government must follow Lord Browne’s recommendation to remove the fee cap on higher education, the College of Law said today. Such a move is necessary to increase competition between higher education establishments, and remove the ‘dividing line’ between public and private tertiary education, the College ...
-
News
Law Society issues warning over government cuts
The Law Society has warned that access to justice must be protected, ahead of the announcement of the government’s spending review next week. Law Society president Linda Lee said the government must commit to funding legal aid and warned against spending cuts that restrict access to ...
-
News
The lie behind the money laundering legislation
I am a regular listener to Radio 4’s Any Questions programme, and always wonder about those panellists who are greeted by a round of applause after their contribution. What must it feel like? Well, now I know. Last week, I was in Vancouver for the International Bar Association’s annual conference. ...
-
News
Sadiq Khan named as shadow lord chancellor
Former human rights solicitor Sadiq Khan was today named shadow lord chancellor, as new Labour leader Ed Miliband assembled his first shadow cabinet. Khan, who was a partner at London human rights firm Christian Khan before standing as Labour candidate for Tooting in the 2005 general ...
-
News
High Court defamation claims soar
The number of High Court defamation claims has risen to the highest level since the Woolf reforms, figures have shown. Defamation claims in the High Court rose to 298 last year, up 15% from 259 in 2008, according to an analysis of judicial statistics carried out ...
-
News
House price fall could prove fillip for conveyancers
Conveyancing solicitors moved to calm concerns over a looming housing crash this week, and suggested that a fall in house prices could have a ‘silver lining’ for the profession. Last week, the Halifax reported a 3.6% decline in house prices in September, the biggest monthly fall ...
-
News
Lord Young declines meeting with profession’s regulator
Lord Young of Graffham turned down an offer to meet with the solicitors’ regulator in advance of his report on health and safety and the ‘compensation culture’, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. ...
-
News
Homeowners' policy could lower PII premiums
Insurance provider First Title has launched a homeowners' protection policy (HOPP) that it claims could lower professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums for solicitors, if it becomes widely adopted by clients. First Title said that a similar product launched in Canada led to a 50% drop in ...
-
News
Is Lord Young being too harsh on personal injury lawyers?
No personal injury lawyer enjoys being called an ‘ambulance chaser’, even if, on occasion, they slip a business card into the bloodied hand of a car crash victim. Such a scene (fictional, I should add) was played out in a TV advertisement I saw last week ...
-
News
SRA closes Burges Salmon investigation
South-west firm Burges Salmon will not face the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal following allegations that it gave inappropriate legal advice to farmers, a long-running investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided. The SRA, which for two years considered allegations about advice given by Burges Salmon to ...
-
News
Political Risk?
Kenneth Clarke’s speech to the Birmingham Law Society and Lord Young’s pronouncements at the weekend remind me that the political risk issues I learnt about at business school are alive, well and threatening further disruption.
-
News
Political risk?
Kenneth Clarke’s speech to the Birmingham Law Society and Lord Young’s pronouncements at the weekend remind me that the political risk issues I learnt about at business school are alive, well and threatening further disruption.